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The State Department has said it believes he was detained by Syrian officials

The Syrian government has said it doesn't know where the journalist is

The parents of an American journalist missing in Syria have a new message for his captors: "Let us be a whole family again."

In a statement published Thursday on the McClatchy Newspapers website, Austin Tice's parents say he went to Syria to share the stories of the country's people.

"We urge you, whoever you are: Let Austin come home for Christmas," Marc and Debra Tice wrote. "Let us hug him, laugh and cry with him, love him in person."

Austin Tice, who was working as a freelancer for McClatchy and other news outlets, last contacted his family on August 13 while in Syria reporting on the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's government. He was reportedly preparing to leave Syria for Lebanon when he went missing, according to his family.

The U.S. State Department has said they believe Tice was detained by Syrian officials in August as he was preparing to leave the country. He had smuggled himself into the country to report on the uprising.

In November, Marc Tice told reporters that the Syrian government had told his family that it doesn't know where their son is.

In October, a shaky video surfaced on YouTube showing a man believed to be Tice surrounded by armed men walking him up a hill.

State Department officials have questioned the veracity of the video, which purports to show Tice in the custody of rebels fighting the Syrian government.